More Reader Mail

And now, it's time to answer more Reader Mail!

In response to my post A Taste of Things to Come, Jeff asks:

You've decided to become a samurai, haven't you?

Nice try, but no. However, I will confess an attraction to the romance of the Samurai lifestyle: the silk kimonos, the emphasis on honor and duty, the intricate and ironclad rules of etiquette; even the zen spirituality is appealing. I often entertain flights of fancy where I sell all my worldly possessions and move to Japan where I live high in the mountains and apprentice myself to a master artisan and commit my life to the pursuit of excellence.

This fantasy usually lasts about 5 minutes before I realize that without medication and a climate-controlled environment, my allergies would make me utterly miserable, and if they didn't kill me then the utter boredom of not having an internet connection would. Still, it's a nice little dream.


Regarding The Sisters Weirde:

While the strength of your premise is the dynamic of your characters, I think there would be some difficulty with a particular power they have in common, which is the ability to change age. This would require each character to be represented by multiple actors, which, while seemingly exciting, could prove to be difficult. Not only for the actors to work together on learning the character's mannerisms and personalities, but as well as hiring actors in the first place. I'm not a producer but I have to assume trying to get someone to sign a contract for only a few episodes could be difficult. That and the opening credits might be a mess. Perhaps I'm just overestimating how often the ability would be used?

You're overestimating, yes, both in how often it would be used and how severe the transformation would be. There's a lot that can be done with makeup and CGI these days, and that's one of the reasons I kept the two older sisters within a 20-year age range. As for Chloë , Anne Hathaway has a young face, and with the right special effects can easily pass for 16 and perhaps younger. On the rare occasions when she needs to appear younger than that, a guest star can be used, but only for the scenes where the transformation is necessary -- rather like how in Quantum Leap, the "Al is holographic" effects and the "ZOMG Sam is in someone else's body" reveals were kept to a minimum.

Will you marry me?

Oddly, this is my first internet marriage proposal, and I've been doing this since February. I suspect I'm losing my touch.


Regarding my synopsis of the first episode of Jericho, the mysterious entity known only as "c" stated:

Next Friday night (7/13), CBS will air a recap special summarizing episodes 2 through 11, skip episode 12 entirely, and follow the recap show with episode 13, "Black Jack." I hope this revelation does not unduly disturb the rhythm of your lurking.

Disturbed? Oh... a little.

Is Troy Hickman as strange as his posts make him out to be?

Darling, you have no idea how strange Troy is. He regularly sends me emails with subject lines reading "Floobity Flobbity," "I Just Ate A Dog," and of course my favorite, "CRACK COCAINE!" Getting a coherent statement out of him usually requires a half-hour of beating him about the head and shoulders with a chair leg:


The worst part is, he admits it. Here it is, from issue 5, page 3, of his indy comic Holey Crullers, wherin he is writing dialog for himself within the comic book:


Troy Hickman -- the Inappropriate Comment that walked like a man!